Monday, August 6, 2012

Denali!

Yesterday while stopped at Toklat a woman working there told us today would be the best weather day of the week, we didn't really believe her but she is the only source of weather we have.

So this morning we got up a 5 AM to catch the first bus passing our campground at 6 something AM. The earlier you can get west in the part the better chance you have of seeing Denali.

We were rewarded and above you see our first full view of Denali through the window of the bus.

Here we see it from a overlook our bus stopped at to let us take pictures.

The drive knows the mountain could be covered in clouds at any time.

Posing with Denali!

Some people on our bus lived in Fairbanks for 25 years told us it took them 8 years of visiting the park to get a view Denali like this.

We are very lucky!

The bus continued on west and this bear wandered right next to the bus I think looking for more squirrels to dig up.

He didn't find any :(

So he kept moving along.

Here we are stopped at Eielson Visitor Center and get another good view of Denali.

Our bus is going on to Wonder Lake and although it is more time on the bus we decide to go as the view of the mountain is more dramatic there because there are no high mountains between you and Denali.

An hour or so later on the bus to Wonder Lake the clouds cover Denali so we can't see it anymore.

The bus stays long enough for us to each lunch and pick some blueberries.

This is all I get as we only had about 20 minutes to pick.

Another close encounter with a grizzlly!

Bear passing the photographers car (photographers can get special driving permits for the road)

The bear doesn't seem to even know the bus is there or filled with people. He just wanders by like we are invisible.

Did I mention this bear is basically in the sample place we hiked down from our previous days hike! That is a close call!

Back at Tek Campground I hike around down the river a mile and find more blueberries!

My brother keeps mentioning a simple cobbler recipe so I try to make it!

1 cup of each flour and sugar plus I add and egg, vanilla and enough milk to make it the right consistency.

I bake it with the brownie setting on my convection microwave.

Al and Reen come over for cobbler, but it is more like blueberry cake. I am not exactly sure what a cobbler is supposed to be like but it is delicious either way!

And will make a good breakfast tomorrow!

It is a good thing we've seen Denali because we joked we weren't going to leave until we saw it!